Turkey has ratcheted up its intervention in the Syrian war to an unprecedented level, debkafile reports exclusively. For the first time in the three-year conflict, Turkey is giving Syrian rebel forces, including the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front, passage through its territory to attack the northwestern Syrian coastal area around Latakia, the Assad clan’s birthplace. But if the rebels are thrown back, will the Turkish army come to their aid? If so, it would be Ankara’s first outright military incursion into Syria and NATO’s first intrusion in its civil war.

Turkish-Iranian intelligence cooperation has produced an operation against Syria rebel supplies through Turkey. Tehran wants to redirect Turkish exports from its Israeli route back to Syria, and use the Turkish route to promote Iranian products in Europe.

Bashar Assad’ sent a Syrian M-17 helicopter into Turkish air space Monday, Sept. 16, with deliberate intent. Ankara fell into the trap by sending the Turkish Air Force to down the intruder after it failed to heed several warnings, instead of chasing it back to Syria. The incident sent border tensions spiraling and gave Damascus and Moscow the pretext for backing out of the chemical weapons deal under the oversight of the Organizaton for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons, so long as the OPCW was headed by a Turkish official.

Turkey has signed an epic pact with the Kurdish Regional Republic of Iraq to cooperate in founding a self-ruling Kurdish entity in northern Syria. Ankara guarantees an air and military umbrella and its pipeline for brining Syrian Kurdish oil and gas to Europe.

The US decision to upgrade Syrian rebel weaponry has run into a major impediment. debkafile reveals that Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan informed President Barack Obama Wednesday, June 19, of his sudden decision to shut down the Turkish corridor for the transfer of US and NATO arms to the Syrian rebels. This will leave the Syrian rebels fighting in Aleppo virtually high and dry. Against this background, the US President decided Friday, June 22, to deploy another 700 combat-equipped American military personnel in Jordan.

More than 35 flights flew weapons to the Syrian rebels through Turkey over the weekend before the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland. The first deliveries of heavy weapons caused the Syrian army to hold up its assault on Aleppo because its tanks needed extra armor to withstand the new missiles.

The battle for Aleppo opened up the last window for US to influence the course of the Syrian war by establishing a limited no-fly zone over the battle arena to deprive the Syrian army of air support. This too was rejected Thursday by Barack Obama.

Russia and the West are suspected of stirring up Turkish dissent – the first to frustrate Turkish intervention in Syria, the second to ignite the Iranian street. The protesters will fight tooth and nail to upset his bid for the presidency with extended almost dictatorial powers.

In its air strike on Syria on May 3, Israel fired stand-off missiles, a tactic for avoiding sending planes into Syrian airspace. This tactic, which Moscow judged to be the precursor for an attack on Iran, will be thwarted by the 200-kilometer range of the S-300 anti-air missiles in Syria.

Russia has claimed it has penetrated the US missile shield and it no longer poses a military threat to Moscow. If this is true, Israel and the Gulf emirates are exposed to Iranian ballistic missiles unless because their early warning systems are integrated in the US network.

Russian Navy Admiral Viktor Chirkov said Sunday, May 12, that a permanent staff of 20 officers is in place to run Russian fleet operations in the Mediterranean Sea. debkafile: Russia’s step aims at safeguarding the Assad regime and securing its Hizballah and Iranian allies. It also signals Moscow’s Middle East comeback.

Pushed hard by the US, Turkish officials opened discussions with Israel on the revival of their former military and intelligence collaboration, especially in relation to the Syrian conflict on which they agreed to pool intelligence and work together in Iraqi Kurdistan.

As Israeli offshore gas came on stream, the jockeying for a stake was in full spate. Netanyahu is believed to have been hustled by Washington into picking Turkey as Israel’s energy partner rather than Russia.

The West has initiated an arms embargo against the Syrian rebels fighting Bashar Assad since discovering that some of the weapons are being resold to al Qaeda for its conquest of southern Syrian and takeover of positions on the Jordanian and Israel borders and Yarmuk River. This policy reversal was disclosed by French President Francois Hollande Friday, March 29. debkafile: Alarm over the Nusra Front’s territorial gains now tops concerns over chemical warfare in the deliberations of the joint US-Israeli, US-Jordanian and US-Turkish command centers.

NATO commander Adm. James Stavridis’s Plan B for Syria would aim straight at Bashar Assad’s ouster but would not require the participation of US forces – only NATO units led by the Turkish military and supported by small special ground contingents from Britain, France, Holland, Poland and the Czech Republic.

Turkish interior minister Moammer Guler identified the suicide bomber who detonated an explosive Friday, Feb. 1 at the US embassy in Ankara, killing a Turkish security guard, as Ecevit Sanli, 31, a member of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), an outlawed left-wing terrorist group. He was released from Turkish jail eight months ago. debkafile: The DHKP/C, which is associated with Lebanese terrorist groups and Syrian left-wing factions, was suspected of the attack killing five Israeli tourists in Burgas, Bulgaria last July.

Comments by US President Barack Obama and Ambassador Dan Shapiro lack a US commitment to step in against the Syrian chemical threat. Obama is concerned with juggling his global military priorities against a shrinking defense budget. debkafile: The onus for coping with the chemical peril is being passed by Washington to Turkey, Jordan and Israel. US aid will be confined to setting targets, providing intelligence and coordinating Israeli-Turkish-Jordanian military operations if necessary to take control of the dangerous arsenal.